FIG. 1 depicts a simplified block diagram of a simplified IP data network 100 of the prior art. The IP network 100 allows IP data to be sent between network users 120 and 122. A network of IP routers 102, 104, 106, and 108 (the purpose, function and operation of which are well known in the art) are interconnected by several data paths 110, 112, 114, 116, and 118 such that data from a particular customer 120 can be routed to/from other internet protocol data network customer 122 using any pathway through the network 100 such as coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, microwave data or other appropriate links between the routers.
As an example of a pathway through the network, data from a customer 120 might be received at a first router 108 and routed over a data path 118 to another router 102 which routes the traffic over the pathway 110 to the other router 104 connected to the destination address, customer 122. Alternate pathways through the network 100 might route data from router 108 through router 102 to router 106 and then to router 104. Yet another pathway might exist from router 108 to 106 to 104.
A problem with an IP data network, such as the simplified depiction in FIG. 1, is that one or more individual routers or internet protocol data switches can become overloaded by the transmission of data to a particular destination address or the receipt of too much data from a particular source address. Curtailing or limiting data to or through a router might limit the economic losses caused by data that is lost because a router is overloaded.
It is well known that IP data packets include both source and destination addresses, which are numerical indicators of the computer of the network from which the data originated and to which a packet is to be sent. In an internet protocol data system, misdelivered or discarded data packets that are not received by the destination are retransmitted by the source at the request of the destination when expected data packets, identified by other data transmitted with each packet, do not arrive.
Another problem with prior art internet protocol data switching networks is the inability to manage or control the flow of data from a particular source address or to a destination address in order to avoid overloading one or more routers in a network so as to insure the smooth flow of data packets through the overall network. A method and apparatus by which an internet protocol data network can manage the receipt of data from or to an address location would be an improvement over the prior art.